1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording apparatus and method and a program, and more particularly to a recording apparatus and method and a program by which a stream can be recorded such that an editing place in the stream can be detected efficiently.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an optical disk recording and reproduction apparatus utilized in a broadcasting station or the like can compression encode a baseband signal, which complies with the High-Definition Television standards, typically in accordance with the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) system. Then, the optical disk recording and reproduction apparatus can record an elementary stream signal obtained as a result of the compression encoding on an optical disk. An exemplary one of such optical disk recording and reproduction apparatus as described above is disclosed, for example, U.S. Published Patent No. 2004/0148551. Such an optical disk recording and reproduction apparatus as mentioned above can also reproduce or read out an ES signal recorded on an optical disk and transmit the ES signal to some other apparatus of a broadcasting station or the like. It is to be noted that such a baseband signal which complies with the High-Definition Television standards as described above is hereinafter referred to simply as HD signal. Also such an elementary stream signal as mentioned above is hereinafter referred to as ES signal.
The ES signal which is an object of such recording or transmission is sometimes in such an edited form that, for example, a first content and a second content are joined together. Where an ES signal includes an editing place which is a joining point between the first and second contents in this manner, it is necessary to detect the editing point. To this end, a technique is often used wherein the ES signal is actually reproduced to detect a point between two frames between which a change in picture pattern is found as a scene change point.
Thus, it is demanded to utilize a technique which can detect an editing point more efficiently than such a common detection method as described above.